Cameras attached to or included in mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, are often used for functions beyond image or video capture (e.g., to scan a Quick Response (QR) Code or translate text). However, the user interface (UI) design and interaction flow of many camera applications (“apps”) still mimic that of a traditional camera, making the use of these apps for such other functions somewhat inelegant. Moreover, for smartphones and tablets in particular, the additional steps of unlocking the mobile device and navigating to the camera app result in unnecessary delay and hassle.
In one example, QR Codes and other machine-readable codes offer an automated way of inputting data, such as a uniform resource locator (URL), to a mobile device. Scanning the QR Code with a camera attached to or included in a mobile device may cause the mobile device to open a webpage corresponding to the encoded URL. In some instances, however, identifying, navigating to, and launching an appropriate QR Code scanner application may take longer than manually typing the URL into a web browser application. Similar inefficiencies in UI design and interaction flow exist for language translation, currency conversion, and various other camera-based apps.